ENSREG newsletter

Regulating for safety

The basic objective of nuclear safety is to protect the public, workers in the nuclear industry and the environment from hazards arising from the nuclear industry. To protect against these risks, nuclear installations must comply with national, EU and international standards which ensure that the established radiation dose limits are not exceeded and that the probability and consequences of nuclear accidents are reduced to an acceptable level. The primary aim of ENSREG’s members – the national nuclear safety regulators – is to ensure compliance with these national, EU and international standards. Another important aim of ENSREG is to contribute to the continual improvement of these standards to ensure higher levels of nuclear safety throughout the EU.

The occurrence of radiological incidents and their likely consequences to humans and / or the environment are limited by setting up successive barriers which prevent the release of radioactive material. The philosophy behind these successive barriers is known as ‘defence in depth’, which aims to reduce the possibility of harm.

As well as regulating for the prevention of accidents, ENSREG’s members are active in the field of emergency preparedness – ensuring through regulation that procedures are in place to respond to nuclear safety incidents.